Aprendizaje y desarrollo de habilidades de lecto-escritura Archive

In the same way that “no action is without an equal and opposite reaction”, there are no sounds that produce no effects.
And precisely because they generate things inside of us –they change us–, sounds are powerful: Just as they make us happy or well, they make us uncomfortable or ill.
That said, what do we know about them?; what are their effects?
Do we know how to use them, both in our professional lives (for example: as a brand for our product), as well as in our private lives?
Julian Treasure is a professional who creates sounds for marketing and for communications media. And today's talk (the video) –the first of three–, simply and brilliantly introduces us to the world of sounds. Because “hearing better”, is living better...

Once in a while we run across the words "colective aesthetics", but few can explain to us what they mean in terms anyone can understand. This brief article achieves this seemingly unsurmountable task, through exposing us to a fun and short test no-one "flunks", no-one fails to answer. Not only does it make us laugh, it also makes us think why in the world we all know these things. If our brains strive innately to learn and retain them, then --somehow, they are necessary for our survival both as individuals and as societies. It naturally follows that those literatures that feed on these elements and keep them alive, constitute a premier social institution, even if our society frequently fails to appreciate it.

This article analyzes the consumption of cultural works in Mexico, at the end of the XXth century.
In the years elapsed since it was published, however, the number of copies magazines sell -like national papers' and other media products' sales, have plummeted.
Several best-selling magazines it mentions, have disappeared from the market; and others are publishing less than a fourth of the copies they did at that time, as a consequence of the very same issues this article analyzed: Creators, producers and distributors of both "high brow" (elite) and "low brow" (popular) works, have alienated themselves from their audiences, and through the continuous opposition to the latters' values, ideas and beliefs (through both veiled and overt contestation), they have lost their consumers' trust. And also their money.
In other words: What this article concluded, is still true, including the fact that people -even the younger generations, are reading... --yes, indeed!; but not what some would like them to read.
In the end, this is more positive for society in many senses, than the consumption of media works that would otherwise have corroded even more, the social and cultural tissue of our countries.
What we have observed is the displacement of average audiences, towards works that better reflect the latter's values, ideas and beliefs, as we should have expected since the beginning: This facilitates the survival of the larger part of the social group and its culture --the part that has been less influenced by media in general, by the way.
Anyone could have foreseen what has happened, from a social-anthropology or systems-theories' frames of study --we certainly did, and published it all around, while many stared at us in disbelief. Nowadays media fear for their very survival; but the social-body demonstrates a vigour and an intuition, few would have vowed for. It will soon produce new works, away from dominant content agendas, that most of us (but sadly not all), will love.

Like any other schooling system, Modern formal education in the Western world, tends to reproduce in students a certain mindset -a certain frame of mind, therefore privileging a particular type of intelligence --the literate one in this case, over others.
We must not forget that this type of intelligence is not the only one humans can access, however: There are other intellectual abilites which it is also worthwhile to acquire, like those an oral culture appreciates, and which are innate to our species.
If we keep basic concept like this is mind, we will be able to make more accurate assumptions about reality, thus improving the quality of the decisions we make, the worth of our opinions, and their impact in the world.
This article mentions one clear example: How the differences between the oral and the literate mindsets, and their intrinsic biases, reduce the possibility of reaching a durable and fair solution for conflicts as serious as the Chiapas rebellion in Mexico, thus gravely affecting the life of a whole nation. The paradigm shift is another example.
__
This is a short version for the general audience, of a very long specialized article that the Revista Digital Universitaria de la UNAM, published in 2002.

A brief examination of what highly educated people really read when nobody is watching them, allows us to conclude that it is humanly impossible to refrain from reading popular works –to maintain a “purely highbrow diet” comprised of only elite works.
We put forth the following explanation: Works applauded and esteemed by the elite arts in the last 100 years or so, envision a sordid, bitter, and hopeless world –thus frequently becoming toxic or harmful for their readers’ emotional and general health, as we shall analyse in other articles. A “purely-depressive works” diet would certainly kill its reader.
No wonder most people, and even highly educated ones, tend to prefer popular works, even if they lack the prestige of the “high arts”. What a pity it is, though, that even popular works have been contaminated by the biases that have progressively killed the “high” arts, thus diminishing the spontaneous and joyful pleasure we hope and expect to obtain from them.

Few times do we talk about what the "message" of a literary work is, even amongst those of us who study literature. Finding out what the message is behind any human expression, however, is fundamental for surviving, as it allows us to filter what we are being told –to separate and retain what serves us, and to prevent us from falling prey to cheaters and liars.
Learning to see through information, allows us to make better use of media, too, without resorting to censorship or limiting our freedom of expression.
Evelyn, the movie (with Pierce Brosnan in the leading role), is a popular work, which was produced to help advance an unpopular political agenda amongst the general audience. The slant, the bias, the way reality was altered in it, in order to promote such agenda, is so great and evident, that it easily serves us to exemplify what a "message" is –what we are talking about; and to show how even a reality-based narration can be manipulated in order to fulfil a given goal.

Blanca de Lizaur 's papers, talks and interviews, in regards to traditional mass media, the digital revolution, Cultural Studies, Popular Literature, the social function of language and media, and other related subjects.

Relevant works by other authors and researchers, commented by her –over 25 years of experience in these fields, work to your advantage!

Suggestions, comments and interesting material which our readers have generously shared with us (as long as they can be legally reproduced).

Subscribe by email:

Sign up here to receive an e-mail every time we have a new article in our web.
Note:We will not use your e-mail address for anything else.

Legal

1) This web page belongs to Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA.

2) You read and distribute these contents at your own responsibility.

3) Embedded/imported contents from other sources, are the property and responsibility of their own authors (many of the pictures and several vídeos, for example, as well as materials provided to us by our visitors). As such, only their owners can authorize their reproduction; if interested, please contact them directly.

4) (C) Copyright claims: Regarding those contents that do belong to us (Blanca de Lizaur), we, as copyright owners, authorize their reproduction:

. 4a) as long as all sources are duly cited (both the original, first-publication's video/audio/bibliographical data, and this web page's URL and date), and

. 4b) as long as contents are reproduced faithfully and complete (full versions only). We do not authorize the creation of derivative works.

5) This web does not store personal data other than those we request when visitors enter comments or sign in our guestbook; and this only for as long as their words remain on-line (published). If you want us to delete both comments and personal data, request their erasure and help us to find them using the web contact form.

. Important notice regarding personal data protection: Like most webs and blogs in the internet, we make use of free services we cannot control. Consequently, we may not be held responsible for how they use our information and that of our readers.

Also because of this, if you sign up to receive mails about new articles in our web, FeedBurner (by Google) will deliver them to you, not us --which means we usually have no access to your e-mail address, or to any other data they may happen to request.

Member of:

Blanca de Lizaur

Motto

Sola veritas nos liberat

Member of:

If you like my work, and want to support it..., I need your help. Only this way will I be able to remain independent.
If you haven't received a Thank you letter from me, then your donation hasn't reached me.